Local Leaders Offer the LGBT Community Post-Election Hope

FERNDALE – More than 50 members of the community gathered on Nov. 10 at Soho in Ferndale for a post-election debrief to discuss the challenges, internal struggles and external division among the population.
Chairperson of Ferndale Pride Julia Music helped organize the event to "make sure we have a safe space for our community, but also to make sure people know what to do next."
Music offered up advice for attendees.
"If you are transitioning: please, if you need to change your gender marker, change your gender marker as fast as you can. There are people here who can help you. There are people here who can explain the process to you," she said. "If you are a married couple who adopted your child before you were married and you are gay, have that other parent adopt your child, too. We need to do everything and put in place as many protections as we can."
Protecting the LGBTQ community has been a major focus for Fair Michigan. The local nonprofit organization intends to reinitiate their ballot proposal efforts prior to the 2018 election.

"We can expect our legislatures to begin passing RFRAs and conversion therapy laws. And there will be no mechanism in place to prevent this from occurring," said Erica Moise, vice president of FM, who was there to tell members of the community about something they can do in response to the "very real threat that all the gains we have made as LGBTQ people will be completely eviscerated by a Trump presidency."
Which highlights the need, said Moise, for this proposal that would amend Article I, Section II of the Michigan Constitution (otherwise known as the Equal Protection Clause), to add gender, gender identity, sex and sexual orientation to those classes protected from discrimination. This would provide the strongest possible prophylactic to any and all laws which discriminate against the LGBT community, according to FM. Not only would the proposal protect LGBT rights to marry and adopt, but the measure would provide additional protections in employment, education, housing and public accommodations. It would also automatically amend the Ethnic Intimidation law to protect LGBTQ people from hate crimes.
"This thing was passed last year by the Board of State Canvassers. It's enjoyed a 68.7 percent approval rating in polling results throughout the state. That was last year during Trump's rise, but due to extremely disappointing community infighting from a certain LGBT organization this measure was scuttled last year," said Eddie Mitchell, a proud Detroiter and resident of Palmer Park.
FM faced public opposition from groups like Equality Michigan and the ACLU of Michigan, which feared the committee was moving too fast and predicted failure at the ballot box. As a result, they called it quits in January 2016.
EQMI and the ACLU had said their modeling did not show a clear path to victory for the ballot proposal, and they expressed concern that a statewide election loss could set back the gay rights movement for years.
"We need our LGBT organizations now more than ever to get their houses in order, step up to the plate and focus on the community and not who gets credit for what is being done," said Mitchell. "Now more than ever we need them to actually do the work. The time has passed for conversation and negotiating in Lansing. The time for action is right now. We need real protections for our community. Not just talking and kicking the can down the road."
But first the LGBT community needs to "look at our shit and start to heal it," said Ferndale mayor, Dave Coulter.
"This nation is long overdo for a conversation about equality. Guess what? As much as I love President Obama, it didn't happen in the last eight years, which is why we had Ferguson and Milwaukee and Baltimore. We haven't had the difficult, painful conversations in this country, and if the silver lining is that that guy in the White House causes us as a country to look at ourselves in the mirror … be open to that is all that I'm saying. Engage each other and our opponents," said Coulter specifically about those who refuse to engage with Trump supporters.
"I assure you we're going to hold Donald Trump accountable. At 3 a.m. on Tuesday (Nov. 8), he said that he wants to be a president for all the people. Now I'm not naive and I'm not stupid and I watched the same campaign you did and I worked really hard to defeat him, but our job is to hold him accountable for that promise because he made us that promise. Give him a chance to do it."
Communications Director at Dr. Anil Kumar for U.S. Congress, Brian Stone, agreed with Coulter's position that discussion is key.
"We win in politics and in life when we talk to people and have those conversations. We can fix what happened on Tuesday (Nov. 8). We can, but it starts with understanding that we have to have those conversations. Is every single person who voted for Donald Trump a racist, bigoted jerk that you can't have a conversation with? No," said Stone pointing to the fundamentals of grassroots activism.
"Most of you are living in areas that will have a city election where school board seats and county commission seats will need to be filled. Go out there and start asking those candidates what their position is on LGBT rights. If they give you the right answer, you need to go out and work for them, and by work for them I mean knock on doors. Make it happen because that's how we get the right people in office, and it always starts at that low level," he said, adding: "Be willing to start with those conversations. It doesn't happen unless you're ready to speak with people."
And while having these conversations, Deacon Angela Lippard of Christ the Good Shepherd in Ferndale reminds the LGBT community and its allies of the diverse group of people they are fighting for.
"Move forward and remember that we have our gay Muslim brothers, our trans women of color sisters, our gender nonconforming siblings, our loved ones with disabilities. We have our family that don't prescribe to moving into the norm of having a house and 2.4 kids and a dog. We have people that we need to bring together and we need to listen to those people who have intersectional identities, and when they say, 'I'm being discriminated against,' we need to listen. Just like they need to listen to us," said Lippard. "We will move together further as a group and not individually. I see strength in all of you."